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Where was this taken? For most of the conifers, you'd need to see the leaves close up and the cones. This looks vaguely hemlockish, but those have very distinctive leaves (Google should be illuminating). If this was taken in the NC mountains, hemlock or spruce are more likely than some of the other alternatives.

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Bald cypress, Taxodium distichum, methinks. It's now commonly planted as a parkway tree, even north of its natural range. This one appears planted.They don't necessarily have to grow in swamps.

Range is to 500 meters. Blue Ridge Parkway is often higher. Hemlocks and spruces are higher elevation trees. This one needs a better photo of the individual leaves. Bald cypress has similar leaves, but sheds them in the winter (therefore the name "bald cypress"). Hemlocks don't. Hemlock leaves are also shorter.

Anyone taking photos of unknown plants needs to do a closeup of the leaves/needles and flowers/cones if possible.

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I see there is an interesting colouration/pattern on the trunk of the tree. Could that be an indicator of type/species?

Allan

Googling around, it also could be one of the redwoods. We don't have the location or the closeups of the leaves. Redwood bark does appear to be red. And there's also something called the Dawn Redwood, from China.

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I fooled myself. It was a bald cypress, and thanks to you all for the info. I'm (somewhat) familiar with the species, as in this pic (below)I took in the Suwanee River in Florida, but didn't expect to see one on the edge of a parking lot in an industrial park in piedmont NC at 1000 ft. elevation.